


Stay Here, At My Side

by Hannahmayski



Series: Team 8 Week 2019 [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Dai-hachi-han | Team 8 (Naruto)-centric, Exhaustion, Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Serial Killers, Team 8 Bonding, Team 8 Week 2019, anyway, cuddle piles, discussions of murder and killing, heck, i guess??, i love team 8, mission aftermath, so uhhh post 4th shinobi war i guess, they're all jounin, why do i write so much about murder
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-22
Updated: 2019-01-22
Packaged: 2019-10-14 08:44:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17505344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hannahmayski/pseuds/Hannahmayski
Summary: After a particularly disturbing mission, Team 8 struggle in the aftermath.(Or, Team 8 bonding and tired cuddle piles)





	Stay Here, At My Side

**Author's Note:**

> Day 2 Team 8 week Mission/AU 
> 
> Warnings: Lots of discussions of murder and death
> 
> (are their errors? Probably.)

Hinata looks out, blankly staring ahead but clearly not engaged with the plain panels of wood in her line of sight. Instead, Shino knows her mind has taken her somewhere she doesn't want to be.

He shuffles across the floor to close the few centimetres separating them, hissing quietly as each movement aggravates his exhausted muscles. He sits down, cross-legged and slumped forward, only held up by his elbows resting on his legs. Shino nudges Hinata slightly, watching her carefully as she jumps, then blinks and the situation in front of her comes back.

That mission is over. They're home.

Hinata heaves in a shaky breath and slowly turns to face Shino. She's almost entirely expressionless, and maybe if Shino hadn't known her for so long, fought alongside her and wasn't one of her best friends he might have had no idea what thoughts were swimming in her mind. But Shino can see the faint downturn of her lips, the barely present creases between her eyes from a frown she can't shake off. He can see the tenseness in her shoulders, the blood under her nails that she keeps picking at.

People don't really understand trackers. They're not an overly popular career choice, and understandably so when there are people like Naruto, Sakura, Ino and Rock Lee who are so loudly powerful no one can ignore them. Whereas people forget about Team 8's rising abilities because their entire job is not about getting into landscape-altering fights. Instead, their job I about quietly hunting until they find their prey.

There's usually no fanfare, no ridiculous jutsus. It is just them, their target and the mission.

Being a tracker is about being inconspicuous. It's easier if people aren't wary of them and so they all have their different ways of keeping themselves off people's radar. Hinata seems as though she wouldn't hurt a fly, seems as fragile as a flower in the breeze. Shino blends into the background. Too quiet to be remembered, and just not quite strong enough to be noticed. Kiba is loud and impulsive, too bull-headed to be of any use in any real high stakes missions. To an outsider, their dynamic would never work. 

But around each other, they can let that charade fall.

This mission was one of those quietly messy ones, where their target's life had spiralled out of control long before Team 8 were ever assigned to take him out. When they found him he had looked at them, leaning over the mutilated body of his latest victim with hands caked in the rich red blood from their body and _smiled_ with all the calmness of an everyday encounter. 

Their target had once been a shinobi like themselves, but at some point, the job stopped being for the good of their village and the comfortable pay packet that they received from their work, but instead, the job became a thrill. Ending someone's life wasn’t a necessity of the shinobi life for him, but instead something enjoyable.

It had taken Team 8 three months of tracking him before they were able to finally put an end his reign of murder, but the implications of his actions had left them shaken.

After weeks of tracking the trail of bodies of innocent people their target had left in his wake, they were exhausted. Senseless murder after senseless murder it had drained all three of them down to their last legs.

Killing their target almost seemed too nice when they had witnessed so much of his brutality themselves.

Kiba is asleep at his and Hinata's feet, curled up against Akamaru. The bone-deep exhaustion having finally knocked him flat. They had ended up heavily relying on Kiba's sense of smell and it had taken its toll on him more than Shino had ever seen before.

Their mission was a success, but the matter remained at the front of their minds - when would the next shinobi snap? When would they have to track down the next one? How can they stop this from happening _again?_

Hinata leans against Shino and shuffles so one hand is grasped around the shoulder strap of Kiba's Jounin vest.

Shino knows they should probably wake Kiba up and force him into a shower as well as get cleaned up himself and Hinata, but the idea of even standing up has his head pounding and legs trembling.

He leans up against Hinata's body weight and watches Kiba's chest carefully as it rises and falls in a calming rhythm. He knows Kiba's at no risk of suddenly dying right here in their apartment, but after the last few months, his mind is not so ready to reason logically with him.

"I never want to move again," Hinata says suddenly, her voice, despite how she whispers, sounds violently loud to Shino's exhausted mind and he can't stop himself from flinching. Hinata wraps her arm around his waist, pulling him closer into her in an unspoken _it's okay_.

Shino nods into her shoulder, speaking a bit beyond him but Hinata doesn't seem to mind and doesn't seem to expect a reply.

They'll get worse missions, Shino knows. But they'll just have to battle through each mission, one mission at a time. As long as they have each other to lean on, surely, they can't fall.

Kiba shuffles in his sleep, his face pinching in pain, and Shino isn’t jealous of him in the slightest. Overuse of his ability to smell leaves him over-sensitive to nearly everything for a period of time. Neither Shino or Hinata have really found a way to help him actually deal with it aside from sleeping it off.

Hinata grips Kiba’s vest tighter as Akamaru gives him a slobbery lick and he peels one eye open, gazing up at them.

“Ah, you're alive,” Shino manages to get out.

Kiba grunts in response and closes his eyes again as Akamaru goes in for another lick. “How long ‘ave I been ‘sleep?” Kiba slurs, half asleep and his exhaustion refusing to let up even an inch not helping Kiba’s case at all. He reaches a dirty hand up to his face and presses it against his nose as though it’ll actually make a difference in the overwhelming onslaught of smells that assault him. 

“Not long,” Hinata says quietly, watching Kiba intently, even though both he and Hinata know that at the end of the day, there’s not much they can really do to help him out.

Kiba hums in response, unable to say anything more. 

Shino leans his head against Hinata’s shoulder and lets his eyes fall shut. They can deal with the real fallout of this mission later, they can deal with showers and reports later. Right now, Shino is surrounded by two of the most important people in his life, and that’s really all that matters.

As long as he has his team by his side, Shino is sure nothing can bring him down.

**Author's Note:**

> yEP thanks for reading!!!!!!! if you like it hmu with some of those fantastic kudos and comments i heckin love that stuff
> 
> (Check out team 8 week [here](https://team8week.tumblr.com/) if you wanna participate! If you only want to do one that's fine and if you don't do it until like 6 months later I don't even care fam tag me (@team8week on tumblr) or gift it to me on here or whatever you wanna do bc I wanna see your content!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) 
> 
> Thank u and I love you all


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